About
Amber Synnett is a representational artist working in various disciplines including drawing, painting, and printmaking. Her practice focuses on humanizing sterile medical imagery of bodily afflictions and internal anatomy. She earned her BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas in Denton TX, and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the State University of New York at New Paltz, in New Paltz, NY.
While studying at SUNY New Paltz, Synnett was awarded a Graduate Assistantship, Teaching Assistantship, Graduate Student Research and Creative Projects Award (RCPA grant), and worked as the Model Coordinator for the Art Department.
Amber Synnett’s work has been exhibited in various galleries including the Cora Stafford Gallery (Denton, TX), Millepiani Exhibition Space (Rome, Italy), and The Station Art Center (Cleveland, OH). She is currently an Adjunct Lecturer of Art at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
Artist Statement
My practice is transforming the medical gaze of the body into uncanny forms. I manipulate the existing values, forms, and color in these images to create an exaggerated visual. I concentrate on the anatomy of human and animal bodies in different medical situations. These states of the body include surgery, illness, injury, recovery, and anatomical study.
I was exposed to photos from the veterinary clinic treatment room, courtesy of my Mom who works as a vet technician. My artwork uses various reference imagery captured by family, friends, and myself from personal medical episodes or from the veterinary clinic. In these images I zoom in on areas that interest me because of their shapes, colors, and composition. I represent these areas in different materials and techniques including oil, watercolor, graphite, printmaking, and digital printing. My most recent work is exploring x-rays through digital alteration and combining the results with oil paint and overlying prints on film with graphite drawings. The interior forms of anatomy reveal the inner workings of a living being. I want viewers of my art to question how they view the open body and reflect on the different layers of flesh that compose life.